Isn't it supposed to be a trio?
by daughterofacountry
Summary: Melody Jackson is an orphan, starting at a new school. She's never fitted into any group, but now she's catching the attention of three rather dashing young men, and she's quite enjoying being wanted for once.
1. My first day

I woke with a start, the sound of my alarm in my ears. "Do you really have to set your alarm so early?" Groaned Mindy, she was my room mate, and she was ten years younger than me, but that was how it worked here. If a new girl came, there wasn't a spare room, you were a girl and you had space in your room, then you were stuck with them. It worked the same way with boys, but they didn't care how much older they were than their room mates. "I'm sorry Mindy, but I don't want to be late for school." I said, throwing the covers off of me and stretching. "You've been late before, they let you off because you live here." She said, sitting up. "That was at my old school. I start a new school today and I'd rather not be late on my first day." I got up, heading for my draw. I opened it and found my uniform as Mindy continued her moaning. "But it's so early. Just tell them that you live here and mornings are hectic, they'll let you off." I sighed loudly. "Mindy, just this once I'd rather not have people knowing that I'm an orphan before knowing my name." I said, and then I left the room and headed to the bathroom. I dressed in my uniform. It was a black skirt with yellow seams, a white shirt and a black jacket, also with yellow seams, and the school badge. I had knee length white socks and black shoes. They would have been hand me down shoes, but I'd saved up for ages to be able to get some proper ones. I'd been wearing hand me downs my whole life, it wasn't something that I enjoyed. I brushed my hair and washed my face, then I went downstairs and nicked a slice of toast from someone's plate. I grabbed my bag, slinging it over my shoulder and headed for the door. "Bye, I'm off to school." I called, none of my fellow orphans replied, but Harriet, the carer came out into the hall. "I'll pick you up in the van at the end of the day." She said as I opened the door. "No need, I'll walk, save you a trip." I said, she nodded as I closed the door behind me. I didn't want to save her the trip, I wanted to save me the embarrassment of being collected from school in a van that said 'Harriet's orphanage for unfortunate kids' on the side, and was full of kids who had no idea what volume control was. I didn't really know how to get to the school, but soon enough I started seeing people wearing the same uniform as me, so I followed them. It wasn't long before I got to the school. I took a deep breath before advancing through the gates. I looked around, glancing at everyone in the hope of seeing someone I'd met when I'd come to look around the school. I couldn't see a single face that I recognized in the slightest. So I switched to trying to tell who seemed friendly. Before I'd even found anyone who looked remotely interesting the bell rang. I hurried inside, instantly finding reception, the lady at the desk gave me my locker number and timetable, I thanked her and went on my way. It wasn't hard to find my locker, and after depositing my bag and getting my notepad out I headed to my first class, which was music, oh joy of joys. My most hated subject, in my old school the teacher had made me sing every lesson. I liked my singing voice, but I got really nervous singing in front of anyone else. We'd all had to do scales at the start of the lesson, but then she would pick a few people to do solos, and every lesson, without fail, she picked me. I hated it, and so grew to hate music. I was still pretty good at it though. I walked through the door of the classroom, wanting to just slink to an empty desk, but as I was new I had to go up to the teacher's desk. The teacher seemed a friendly man, but he insisted on introducing me to the class, which immediately put me off liking him. I hated being in front of people, it made me feel like I was being judged. He waited until everyone was there and then silenced the class. "Class, we have a new student with us today. I'd like you to try and make her feel welcome as she's probably very nervous." He gestured for me to step forward, "If you would like to introduce yourself." He said to me. 'I would not.' I replied in my head, but of course I could say that out loud. "I'm Melody. Melody Jackson." I said, holding my head up so I couldn't stare at the floor, but not making eye contact with anyone there. "Right then Melody, if you would like to take a seat. There's an empty one back there, next to Gilbert." I heard a few gasps as he said the name of the boy at the back. It was quite dark back there, but I could see that he had red eyes, and hair that seemed almost, silver. He was grinning as I approached, and he started to laugh as I sat down next to him. It didn't sound like a proper laugh, more of a 'Kesesesese'. It was strange, but I wasn't going to judge him based on his laugh. If I had to sit next to him all lesson, then I would talk to him, get to know him a little, then I would see what I thought of him. I could feel that people were watching me, but when I turned around, they seemed to be watching both of us, like they expected him to do something. At the time I didn't understand it, but I did by the end of the lesson.


	2. Groups of four

"Right so, if you would like to get into groups of four, you may begin preparing a performance." The teacher declared. Instantly people were running about, grabbing their friends to make a group. I didn't have any friends, so I just looked around to see if anyone was going to come to me. Suddenly my eye was caught by two boys leaping over the middle desks that separated the two sides of the room. They came over to Gilbert, but their eyes were on me. One of them had blonde shoulder length hair and blue eyes, while the other had short brown hair and green eyes. The blonde one winked at me before sitting next to Gilbert, I blushed slightly at that, which made all three of them smile. "So we have me, Francis and Antonio in a group, but that's only three, we need one more person." Gilbert said, turning to me. His grin made me slightly suspicious of him, but at least I knew who was who now. "Melody, would you join our group?" An evil glint flashed in his eyes for a moment, and for some reason, that glint made me curious, and I'd never been able to control my curiosity. "Umm... Sure, why not?" I said. They all looked slightly shocked, as if they hadn't expected me to say yes at all. But that faded quickly. The silence was making me feel awkward, so I focused on what we were supposed to be doing. "So umm, what do you guys want to do? For the performance, I mean." I added the last bit after I noticed the way they were staring at me. Like I was a zebra and they were all lions, and hungry lions at that. "I don't mind, why don't you choose Melody, seen at it's your first day and all." Said Antonio, the other two nodded in agreement. "Oh, alright then." I said hesitantly. "Do you play any instruments?" I asked. It turned out that Francis played bass guitar, Antonio played the drums and Gilbert didn't play anything, but could sing. I could work with that. I opened my notepad to the back page, jotting down their instruments and possible songs we could perform. "So what do you play?" Francis asked me. "I prefer to sing, but I play the violin and the flute, as well as a bit of piano, and electric guitar." I tried to make it sound like I didn't really care, people were always making me learn musical stuff because of my name. Apparently if you have a musical name you must be good at music. "Wow, sounds like you really live up to your name then." Gilbert said, I stiffened, he'd just hit a nerve, but I kept my cool. "Yeah, guess I do." I said, before starting up a discussion about what we should perform. It was decided that I was singing, along with Gilbert, while the other two played the track. So that pretty much limited us to duets, and as he was a guy, that meant a love song. Goodie. I didn't like love songs, but luckily for me Mindy did. I hated listening to them, but it meant that I knew the words to quite a few of them. It wasn't hard to pick out the song we would be doing, because they let me pick. I picked the one that spoke least about love, and as we were the first group to decide we were sent out to a practice room. Gilbert was first up to sing, and I had to admit, he was good. I never expected the song to sound so good with his accent, but it worked. I was so content listening to him that I almost missed my cue. I managed to sing at the right time though, and I'd only got through a few syllables when the room fell silent. "What?" I asked, turning to look at the three boys. They were all there with their mouths hanging open, eyes wide. "Y-your voice...it's...it's..." Francis muttered, but he couldn't seem to find the right word to finish. Apparently Antonio could though. "Beautiful." He whispered. I rolled my eyes, hating their reaction to my singing. I didn't want to get angry or emotional on my first day, so I stuck with humor instead. "Well if it's really so beautiful then why'd you stop playing? Surely if you liked it you'd have kept going so you could hear more." I said sarcastically, folding my arms. Their smiles returned. "Do you want to start from the beginning, or from where you come in?" Gilbert asked. I pretended to be in deep thought over this before I answered. "Well, you're funny when you sing, so from the beginning." I said, smiling. It was true, when he sang he tried to dance, and that was hilarious. So we started from the beginning again and when I joined in this time the music continued. I sang quietly at first, but as the song went on I got more into it and started to get more enthusiastic about it, moving around a bit to the music. I wasn't even aware I was moving at all until Francis yelled "Sweet moves Melody!". I blushed then, but before long I was moving again, I thought I was still doing it unintentionally, but part of me suspected that I was doing it on purpose. Either way, we were all having fun, although I think the boys were having more fun than I was. Especially when they made me watch while they performed a different song, and I started dancing to it. I couldn't help myself, I'd never had that much fun on a first day before, and I wasn't sure why I was now, was it because I felt comfortable performing here, or because of who I was performing with? I suspected the second theory, more so when I walked into my second lesson of the day.


	3. Drama

My second lesson was drama, and I found myself smiling as I realized that the only spare seat with all three of the boys from music. They noticed my smile and returned it as I walked over to the teacher's desk. The drama teacher insisted on introducing me to the class, but she wasn't content with me just telling the class my name, no. I also had to tell them my favorite novel, as well as loads of other useless information. When she asked me how many siblings I had, saying none was easy enough, but then she moved onto the subject of parents and I went all figity, unable to string a sentence together. She eventually got the message that I was uncomfortable with that topic and let me go to my seat. Immediately the boys started to question me about my family, but I had no answers to give them. "So what's your dad's name?" Antonio asked, I stayed silent. "How old's your mother?" Gilbert said, stretching across the desk so we were face to face. Again I stayed silent, anger starting to stir inside of me. "Who's eyes did you get?" Francis joined in the questioning. I still refused to speak, the anger growing by the second, joined by sadness now. "Do you have any cousins?", "Is it a big family tree?", "Where do your parents work?" The questions were endless. Eventually I couldn't take it anymore. "Just stop asking me about my family, because I can't tell you anything!" I snapped. "Why not?" They said in unison. "Because I don't have a family!" I yelled, standing up. The whole room fell silent and I ran out of the door, tears streaming down my face. "Crud, now I've blown it. First day and they must all think I'm a freak. I didn't even get through two whole lessons." I sobbed. I'd stopped running when I reached the stairs and was now curled up with my head in my knees. "That must be a new record for a new girl." Said a voice from behind me. I yelped and turned round sharply, nearly falling down the stairs. It was only Francis. I turned back around, blushing. "A lesson and a quarter, they normally last longer than that. At least two lessons. Usually three. If they run away at all that is, quite a few don't run at all." He said, sitting down next to me. "But still, good effort." He ran a hand through his hair. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?" I asked sarcastically. He chuckled, but it sounded more like a sigh. Then he suddenly got all tense and awkward. "Melody, do...do you really not have a family?" He asked nervously. "No, I'm an orphan." I murmured into my knees. "Oh. That must really suck. Have you ever had a foster family?" He sounded a little more confident now, but still a little tetchy. "Yeah, but never for more than a couple weeks. For some reason no one wants me for long, but I'm not sure why." I wiped my eyes on my sleeve. "I can't imagine anybody returning you to an orphanage." He said, he was trying to be smooth, but with this topic it didn't really work very well. "Well it's happened a lot. Forty-seven times, if I'm counting correctly." He looked utterly stunned. "Forty-seven times!" He exclaimed. He then realized that he hadn't been very tactical then, and blushed a little. I laughed quietly to show him that it was fine. "People are going to ask questions when you get back to class you know." He stated. "I know." I replied, tucking my hair behind my ear. "You could just ditch the rest of the day, go home, chill out there and then come back tomorrow. That's what quite a few people do." He wasn't seeing the obvious. "I can't go home, Harriet would be there, and so would Seamus. It's just not that simple for me." I said, Francis looked confused and I realized that he didn't know who Harriet or Seamus were. "Harriet and Seamus are the carers there. Harriet lives there, but Seamus is only there during the day." I explained. He nodded slowly. "You know, if you wanted to stay out here for a bit, I could just say that I couldn't find you and you were probably in the bathroom or something like that." He suggested. I mulled it over for a while, then decided that it wasn't worth it. "No, if you say that then some girl will be sent to find me, and my cover will be blown." I said. He laughed. "You sound like a spy." I laughed too, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere. We got up and walked to the front door. Just as we stepped outside Harriet pulled into the car park in the van. I stopped dead in my tracks as she climbed out of the driver's seat. "Turn around, retreat, retreat." I said hastily, spinning on my heel, but by then it was too late. "Melody?" She called questioningly. She walked towards us, certain it was me now. "Melody, would you care to tell me why I was called here?" She yelled. I cringed, knowing that there was no way out now.


	4. Why would they even have that leaflet?

I slowly turned back around, not entirely sure what I was supposed to say now. It had never crossed my mind that the school might call her in, although now that I thought about it, they always had. I was an orphan, meaning I was a special case in the eyes of the teachers. The ones that knew anyway. It made perfect sense that they would want her here, they didn't know how I was going to act when they couldn't keep an eye on me. People seem to think that orphans are unpredictable, that their emotions run wild and you never know which way they're going to turn when they get angry or upset. I hated being stereo-typed. "Well, I'm waiting for an explanation." Harriet said, she was stood right in front of me now. "I...flipped out." I hung my head in shame, embarrassed that Francis was here to watch me getting told off. I was probably about to get a lecture, which would most likely end in me being grounded. Not that it mattered, I never went anywhere anyway, so I wasn't being denied any outings. It wasn't really a punishment, it was just supposed to feel like one. The lecturing began, and I kept my head down, trying to look as apologetic as possible, even though in my opinion I hadn't over reacted, I hadn't unnecessarily lashed out and I most certainly had not offended innocent students. I had however, ruined any chance of making a good first impression on the school. "And this is only your first day here." Harriet continued to lecture me. "I swear Melody, if you don't stop acting like this in every school I put you in I'll be sending you to a boarding school, a private boarding school." I jerked my head up sharply, I'd only been given that threat once before, but I knew that she hadn't really meant it. This time she did, she even went into the office to talk to them about it and they gave her a leaflet for a boarding school. In Germany. "Why did they help her? They don't even know me and they're trying to get rid of me already!" I ranted at lunch. I was pacing up and down in front of Francis, Gilbert and Antonio while they all sat on a bench. "Maybe they're trying to get rid of you because they don't know you." Antonio offered helpfully. I stopped pacing, staring at him. "In what universe does that make any sense?" I snapped. "Well actually-" Gilbert started to say, but I cut him off. "Do not try to explain anything to me while I am in this mood!" I went back to pacing. My sub-conscious knew that I was hurting their feelings, but I was too riled up to care. My anger didn't subside at any point in the day and when the final bell sounded at the end of school I sprinted through the front door and carried on running all the way back to the orphanage, unaware that three other sets of footsteps were echoing behind my own.


	5. You're kidding, right?

I was just lounging around trying to trick Lucas into believing that I actually had a secret pet dragon, and if he behaved nicely then my dragon would bring him a present while he was asleep. It was hard work, but, probably because he's only five, he started to believe it. He was asking me what kind of present he would get when the doorbell rang. I was about to get up, but then heard Seamus yelling "I'll get it!" So didn't bother. I did, however, listen to try and find out who was at the door. I couldn't hear them properly, just muffled noises, but I wasn't trying to hear who was actually at the door anymore, I was waiting to see who Seamus called out to. I didn't have to wait long. "Dee! It's for you!" He yelled and I nearly fell off my seat. "Really?" I spluttered. "Yeah, it shocked me too." He laughed. I went out into the hall, and there they were. Francis was stood slightly in front of the other two, Gilbert was on his right, leaning against the wall and trying to look all cool, and Antonio was trying to peer over Francis' shoulder. It was quite hard not to laugh at them. "What are you guys doing here?" I asked, stepping past Seamus. "We just wanted to check you were okay, you did have a pretty hard day after all." Francis said. I couldn't help smiling, they'd actually come to check on me, and they were all still in their uniforms, so none of them had gone home yet. Then I noticed that they were all looking at me weirdly. At first I had no idea why, then I looked down at myself and I understood. I was wearing a very short mini skirt with tiny shorts underneath, a tight-ish tank top, knee high socks and finger-less gloves. All of which was neon. Neon green, pink, orange and yellow. I looked back up at them, giggling nervously. Seamus started laughing and my foot 'accidentally' shot backwards and connected with his shin. He took the hint and hobbled away, leaving me looking like some weird cartoon character standing awkwardly with the only three friends I'd ever made. That didn't live with me that is. We'd managed to get to the small talk stage of the conversation, which in my opinion was going quite well, when Lucas invaded. "Dee!" He yelled, running out into the hall. I sighed, apparently I had no hope of ever getting any peace from the younger children around here. "Lucas, what do you want?" I tried to sound cheerful, but I very much doubt that I succeeded in the matter. He opened his mouth to respond, but was cut of by Mindy screaming from upstairs. Seamus rushed to the stairs, but I was already halfway up them when he got there, so he just waited at the bottom. Mindy was jumping up and down on the landing, so I grabbed her shoulders to hold her still. "What is it, what happened?" I asked and she started to cry. "There's a huge spider on my bed, and it nearly ran all over me!" She wailed. "Alright, a huge spider. I'll get it." I sighed. Seamus, having heard the reason for the screaming, through my a cup. I caught and went into my and Mindy's bedroom. I trapped the spider with expert precision and was about to slide a piece of paper underneath it, when the spider jumped. I let out a small scream and dashed back out onto the landing. "I thought you were getting rid of it." Mindy cried. "I was, but then the freaking thing went and flipping jumped!" I said quickly. "How strange, jumping ones don't usually come inside." Gilbert said calmly, climbing the stairs. "I don't care how often the come inside, I just want it gone." Mindy whimpered as Gilbert entered the bedroom. "Well that's reasonable, considering that's a poisonous spider." He said, picking up the cup, with the spider in it, obviously. Mindy, at this point, fainted, while I merely froze. "P-poisonous?" I stammered. "Ja, but don't worry, the worst he could do is make you feel tired for a while, not a big deal." I unfroze for long enough to get out of his way, but I didn't calm down until the spider was safely outside. Francis cowered behind Antonio as Gilbert went past them, which I much admit, even while I was still panicked, I found pretty funny. Once I'd calmed down I nudged Mindy with my foot. "Minds, you can get up now." I said. She opened her eyes. "Aww, but Dee, it's comfy down here." She murmured. I gave a small smile. "You know, if you don't get up, I may just have to get Gilbert to bring the spider back inside." I sighed. She leaped up off of the floor. "I'm up, I'm up!" She yelled, clearly scared that the spider was coming back, and I burst out laughing.


	6. So, this is my room

"So ummm, yeah, this is the living room." I said awkwardly, leading the three boys around. "Complete with clingy children." I added as Lucas threw his arms around my legs. I crouched down and picked him up so he could hug me properly. He refused point blank when I tried to get him to let go of me, so I had to carry him around with me while I showed the boys around. I showed them the kitchen, where they met Harriet, who quizzed me on why my friends weren't girls, and when I kindly pointed out that she was being quite rude seen as my friends were actually stood there, she decided that I must like at least one of them, and that's why I put up with the other two. At that point I gave her my death stare and herded the boys out of there and into the dining room. That was where Tiffany and Steve were playing. Tiffany was being a princess and Steve was her slave. "Hey Tiff, hey Stevie." I said, they stopped their game to hug me, which was a tad difficult, considering they were both trying to hug me at the same time and I was still carrying Lucas. "Who are they?" Steve asked me, gesturing towards the boys. "They are Francis, Gilbert and Antonio." I said, gesturing to each of them in turn. "Boys, this is Tiffany and Steve, they're the resident twins here." I said, not needing to gesture at them because it was obvious who was who. They all greeted each other and, after a conversation about whether the boys thought that Tiffany was a very beautiful princess or not, (of course they all did), we were able to move on. We went into the hall and upstairs, where we found Seamus on the landing holding Johnathan in the air by his ankles. To me this wasn't a strange sight at all, it happened all the time, for some reason Johnathan had started to like being dangled upside down about a year ago, when he was two. "You've already met Seamus, obviously, and that's Johnny." I said as we walked past them. Seamus nodded at the boys while Johnny giggled relentlessly. "And, so, this is my room. And Mindy's, we share this room. But umm, Gilbert, you've already seen in here, because, you rescued us from the weirdo spider." I said, laughing slightly afterwards. I crawled onto my bed, grabbing a pillow to hug. All three boys just looked at me with blank expressions. "You can sit down you know." I said, patting the bed. They sat down, and we were there in awkward silence for a bit. We probably would have stayed silent for longer, but suddenly we could hear music coming from downstairs. After a couple of minutes I started swaying my head around to it, letting my hair swish around, falling into my face. Antonio started to laugh at me as I sang along to the music. I still had hair in my face, so while I was singing I ended up with a chunk in my mouth. "Phel-ple." I spluttered, "Hair does not have as pleasant a taste as you would think." I joked, which made all three of them laugh. I felt really happy, I had friends that had come to see me when I'd only met them today, and now I was making them laugh with bad humor. Score! It was something I'd never achieved before. I'd made some friends that weren't just people taking pity on me, and I could make them laugh. Or maybe they were just being polite. Either way, I didn't really care. I had friends now, that was all I'd ever really wanted. Other orphans just wanted a family, but I didn't care about that anymore. I'd wanted a family when I was younger, but years of being fostered for three weeks and then returned to the orphanage had drummed that out of me, I didn't care about getting a family anymore. I just wanted friends to be there for me every day, and if my instincts were right, that was what I had right now.


	7. True friends

I'd been right about the boys being true friends to me, we hung out together all day, every day at school, and whenever we had to get into pairs or groups I ended up with one or more of them. Other people had been warning me not to let them get to close to me, that they were huge perverts, but that didn't really bother me. They had tried to look up my skirt a couple of times and I'd been pinned up against the wall more than once, but I really didn't care. If anything I actually, enjoyed it when they did that. It made me feel wanted, and it wasn't like they were going so far as to kiss me or anything, so what did it matter? Also, I'd found myself gaining a few of their characteristics, I would try to catch a glimpse inside of the boys changing rooms when I went past, and I was being a bit more slutty as well, wearing my skirt hitched right up so my knickers were almost showing. I had to be very careful sitting down though, I didn't want to just show the world everything, though I didn't do the top button on my shirt up any more. So they had reputations for being pervs and I was gaining one for being a slut, but that didn't matter to any of us, we were happy with our little group the way it was, and we all stuck up for each other. Well, I stuck up for the boys and they stuck up for me, but they didn't really stick up for each other that much. In fact, most of the snide comments about us were made, by us. We even spread rumors about each other, then pretended we didn't have a clue where they could possibly have come from. Acting innocent when you weren't was definitely something you had to have a knack for, and luckily it appeared that I had that knack. As well as a knack for not getting caught doing anything, or even suspected for that matter. In my second week at school I'd managed to sneak into the head teacher's office, pick the locks of all the cupboards, take all of the records and hide little clumps of them all around school over the next few days. I'd been here for three months now and they still had no idea that it was me. I'd made the boys proud of me by doing that, and after a few more daring antics like that I had their full respect, and they did anything I asked them to, which was kind of fun. I had all three of them wrapped around my little finger, and everyone knew it; Seamus had certainly mocked me about it enough. Not that there was anything wrong with that though, it made me feel wanted, no, needed, and I'd never felt that before, it was something that I'd always craved, but never had, and now I had it from three people at the same time. Well, Harriet had needed me to do jobs and look after the younger kids and stuff, and she saw that as me being needed by all of them, she thought that that was what I'd always wanted, but it wasn't and it never had been. I wanted people to want me around them all the time; to miss me after we'd been separate for less than half an hour; to feel like they would protect me from anything. So basically, I wanted someone to love me. I didn't really care who, just, someone, but now I had three someones.


	8. Stupid thief

So everything was going brilliantly; I had my first ever real friends with me every day, life at home was seeming way more fun and I was getting a little crush on one of the boys at school. His name: Lovino Vargas, aka: really really cute guy from South Italy. My daydreams were way cooler with him in them, and luckily I'm not sure any of the boys noticed. Although I certainly noticed when they started chasing after another girl. She joined the school a term and a half after me, and almost immediately the three boys were enchanted by her. She didn't even have to look at them and they were sneaking around, following her everywhere. I started to feel very abandoned by them, but they were completely oblivious, engulfed by their sudden love for that stupid Susie. She wasn't even pretty, she was just plain; with her dull brown hair and her dull green eyes, her stupid plain white schoolbag and even more stupid white headbands. She didn't even have proper earrings, just stupid little white studs smaller than ants. Oh, how I hated that girl, but according to my so called 'friends' she was: ' a delicate flower' or: 'late to blossom'. Late to blossom, she wishes. She was covered in spots and had stupid geeky glasses, but apparently these stupid, stupid things were 'quirks'. So thanks to stupid her my happiness had just flown out of the window, on the stupid back of a stupid bird. "How dare she steal my friends." I cursed her under my breath as the boys scurried after her at the end of maths. It was lunch, and with the boys on a stupid goose chase I had no one to sit with, so I merely strolled around, watching what everyone else was doing and trying to think up a plan to get teach that stupid girl a lesson she wouldn't soon forget. I spotted Arthur in an empty classroom, he had a load of candles and was spouting a hold load of magical rubbish. Normally I would have jeered at him, but today that magical rubbish was exactly what I needed. "Hey, Arthur, umm, hi." I said nervously, walking into the room. I'd been able to picture myself doing this so confidently, but now that it was happening I wasn't confident at all. "Oh, Melody, it's you." He said after turning round with a hilariously scared look on his face. "Have you come to mock me for this?" He asked coldly, it actually offended me a little, though I knew that mocking him was what I usually did. "N-no. I actually came to, well, see, I just wanted to ask if...if...if you knew how to cast curses." I said, looking at the floor and blushing. "Curses. Why would you want to know that?" Just then stupid Susie ran past the door screaming "Get away from me you pervs!" Closely followed by the boys yelling "No, no wait, we're not gonna hurt you!". My fists clenched and angry tears welled up in my eyes. "Ah, that's why." Said Arthur, understanding now. "So, will you do it?" I asked sharply, jerking my head up, a few tears splattering onto the floor. "You do understand that curses can have very bad effects, some can even end in death." He explained. "I don't want her dead, I just want to teach that stupid thief a lesson. So, I'll ask again. Will you do it?" I said, breathing heavily now. "Of course, my lady."


	9. Well that's going a tad too far

"Perhaps it would be better to curse the three of them, rather than her. After all, she hasn't done anything, you heard her a moment ago, she doesn't want them chasing after her." Arthur said as he flicked through one on his books. I mulled this over for a minute, chewing my fingernail. "Maybe. I am pretty mad at her though." I murmured. "Yes, I can understand that, but it's the three boys that pushed you aside, she probably didn't even know that they were coming after her until they got there." He continued, sticking a scrap of paper in the book as a makeshift bookmark. "I guess. Yeah, curse those three morons instead of her." I said, an evil glint lighting up my eyes. "That's good. Now exactly what kind of curse do you want?" He flicked past a couple more pages. "What options do I have?" I asked, the glint of evil fading away. "Well, there are curses that do all sorts of things, you can cut off their senses, control their actions, but that only lasts for a short period of time. You can create obsessions for them-" "Obsessions?" I interjected." "Yes, it means you can make them completely obsessed with something, but once again, it wears off after time, and then there's always voodoo, but that's a huge confusing mess of rubbish that you really don't want to be getting yourself into." He paused, marking another page of the book, and accidentally giving me the perfect chance to start questioning him. "What kind of confusing mess?" I asked, leaning forward in the chair that I had purloined earlier on. "Look, voodoo can be very dangerous, one wrong move and everything goes haywire." He stopped leafing through the pages, trying to make his point seem as serious as possible. "Even voodoo dolls?" I asked innocently. "Well, the dolls aren't as bad as everything else, but they're still not fun. For example, once you've made the doll you can't let it out of your sight, if anything happens to it, then the person will feel the effects, and you most certainly can't let it be destroyed, or the person will be killed." I started to chew my fingernails again. "Well I'm not going there then, I don't want to kill them, just teach them a lesson. What have you got that's just mild stuff?" I was getting desperate now. The boys had run past the room a few times now, following after Susie, and each time I hated them a little more. "There isn't much that's mild in the way of curses, and anything that is mild wouldn't make them think that they were being taught a lesson, just that they were unlucky." I sighed, completely deflated now. "Oh, well, thanks for looking anyway." I said, standing up and straightening my skirt. I gave him an awkward little wave and headed for the door, I'd only just touched the handle when he grabbed my arm. I spun round so that we were face to face and he took a step back. "There are non-magical ways that I could help you." He said quietly, looking at his feet, which he was shuffling around in his shoes. "Really, like what?" I asked curiously. "Well I could, umm, I could...I was just thinking, umm, I could talk to them and try and make them see, that, well, that they're lucky that they had you in the first place." He said, blushing. I couldn't believe what he'd just said, I knew that loads of the boys here liked me, but Arthur Kirkland had basically just confessed to having a crush on me. I smiled, touched by the fact that he really seemed to care. "Thanks Arthur, that would be great." I turned back to the door and opened it, but paused before leaving the room. "Just don't take it too far, there are three of them and only one of you, I don't want you to get hurt." I said. The bell rang then and I hurried to my next class, leaving Arthur staring after me with a dreamy expression of his face.


	10. Regrets

I regretted letting Arthur face the three of them. He went up to them at lunch the very next day and started shouting at them. I heard him and dashed round the corner just in time to stop Gilbert punching him. "I though I told you not to go too far." I said as I led Arthur to where I was sitting. "I know, but I could have handled that even if you hadn't interfered." He retaliated quickly. "Arthur, you were pinned against a wall, your feet weren't even on the ground. What on earth did you say to them?" I questioned, tucking my skirt neatly underneath me as I sat down. "Well, nothing really. I just said that they were stupid to hurt you, and then they started saying that they hadn't hurt you and didn't believe me when I said they had." He sat down next to me. I sighed heavily. "I guess it's my fault really, I shouldn't have told you to confront them, I probably shouldn't have even come to you for help." I said quietly, clutching my knees to my chest. "No, I-I'm glad you came to me, I'm not sure anyone else would have understood it properly." He said awkwardly. I figured he wasn't really used to comforting people and I found it quite amusing. All of a sudden Lovino sauntered round the corner, looking cool as ever with his hands in his pockets. I quickly lowered my legs, attempting to keep both him and Arthur from seeing the light blush that now dusted my cheeks. Lovino wasn't paying me any attention at all, so he didn't notice it, but Arthur did. When I looked up again after Lovino was gone I saw the look on his face, and immediately felt guilty. The look in his eyes was hurt, but at the same time accepting. It was as if he was okay with the fact that even though he liked me, he could never have me. A small part of me wanted to prove him wrong, wanted to kiss him right there and then, but I could see Francis, Gilbert and Antonio peering at me round the corner. Francis and Antonio were just staring at me, as if daring me to kiss Arthur, just so that they would have a reason to hate him, but Gilbert's eyes were filled with a different emotion entirely. He was forcing me to keep eye contact with him, and his eyes were wide and pleading, begging me not to kiss the English man sat just inches away from me. And although that little part of me wanted to kiss him, just so that he would know that I cared, I couldn't stop myself gazing into Gilbert's eyes, and I knew. I forgot about everything; Susie; Lovino; even Arthur, who was sat right there. But it didn't matter because now I knew where my heart belonged, I knew where I belonged.


	11. Interruptions

"I'm sorry Arthur, I'm so sorry, but...I have to." I gabbled quickly, before jumping up from the bench and sprinting towards the three boys. Tears started streaming down my face as I embraced the three of them in a huge hug. I pulled away and hugged each one individually. Francis first, then Antonio, and I paused before hugging Gilbert. He took a step towards me, wiping my tears away very slowly with his thumb, and then he kissed me. I heard Arthur give an awkward chuckle that almost said, "She'll never kiss you back.", and then I heard it trail to nothing as I did. I felt Gilbert gasp lightly and realized that he probably hadn't expected me to kiss him back either. I wrapped my arms around his neck, letting my fingers tangle themselves in his hair. One of his hands tangled into my own hair while the other held my waist, keeping me close to him. It was at this point that Francis decided to interrupt our little moment. "Uh, guys, I know this is your first kiss and all, but your in the middle of school and everyone can see you. So, either stop or get a room. Or both." We pulled away from each other sharpish and he laughed. Gilbert smiled broadly at me, laughing quietly himself, while I just stood there, completely breathless. We stood there for a minute and then I attacked him with a hug then nearly sent us both tumbling to the floor. We both laughed as he held me tight, regaining balance for both of us. "Once again, get a room." Francis mocked and I released Gilbert from my hug of death. I looked at all three boys and then glanced at Arthur. He looked furious, and I knew that I'd hurt him. "I'm sorry." I mouthed to him, but he ignored me and turned and walked away. I watched him turn the corner and thought about going after him, but as I took the first step towards him Gilbert grabbed my arm. "Just leave him, he'll get over it, he always does." He reassured me softly. I nodded slowly, I was unsure, but I trusted Gilbert. Just then the bell rang and it made me jump. "Ha! Come on Dee, let's grab your stuff and head to gym class, we're working in pairs today." He said, winking at me, and I giggled, making him smile. We hung out all day and then when the final bell went we all went back to the orphanage. I went in before the boys and made them wait at the door. "Hey Mindy! Guess who's here!" I yelled up the stairs. She ran to the top of the stairs and spotted the three boys standing at the door. Before the whole Susie thing started she'd become good friends with them, one of them in particular. "Francis!" She yelled, racing down the stairs and throwing herself at him. He whirled her up into his arms and carried her around for a while. Lucas clung to Antonio as we entered the living room and I laughed. "You know, the first time you guys came here I told you that the living room was complete with clingy children. It still is." I said, folding my arms. "So nothing changes." Gilbert laughed, wrapping his arm around my waist, which earned him a very threatening look from Seamus. "Well, not nothing. Tiff and Stevie aren't here anymore." I said sadly, and the boys glanced around, finally noticing what we couldn't ignore.


	12. Brownies

"How long have they been gone?" Antonio asked as we all clambered onto my bed. "Just a couple days." I answered quietly. "So the wound's still fresh then." Francis stated. I nodded, tears forming in the corners of my eyes and Gilbert pulled me onto his lap. I curled up against him while he rocked me gently back and forth. He was humming as well, ever so quietly, so only I could hear. He hummed my favorite song on a loop while I cried silently. Francis and Antonio sat there awkwardly until I finally managed to stop crying. "Sorry guys, I know you didn't come here just so that I could depress you." I murmured, attempting a laugh at the end. "That's okay Dee, two of the people you've lived with for...however long, have moved away, I'd probably feel weirder if you weren't upset." Francis tried to comfort me. but it wasn't working half as well as having Gilbert's arms around me, it was almost as if we were the same person, deeply connected in ways I didn't even understand. The other two boys seemed to pick up on this, and the atmosphere in the room got way more awkward. "Perhaps me and Antonio should leave you two in peace. And privacy." Francis said, turning to the edge of the bed. I was about to protest, but I saw the look in Gilbert's eyes and stopped. He'd let them know he wanted to be alone with me, they were simply obeying, and knowing that he wanted them to go kind of made me want them to go as well. So I let the two of them leave and nuzzled my head into Gilbert's shoulder. His arms tightened around me and he kissed my forehead. I lifted my head up to kiss him properly and he slowly placed his lips on mine. After a minute or two he tried to pull away, but my arms flew around his neck without me telling them to, holding him there. That one kiss turned into a full blown make out session, which lasted about half an hour and only ended because Francis and Antonio came back upstairs. "Knock knock, we're back. With brownies, that we were forced to bring up by Seamus." Francis said, entering the room with a plate of miniature brownies in his hand. "Hey, you can't just waltz in here with no warning, we could have been naked for all you would've known!" Gilbert snapped. "Ha-haha, no we couldn't." I said, as matter-of-factly as possible. Francis burst out laughing and Antonio smirked, but Gilbert was very unimpressed. I smiled at him and he relaxed a little, though he still wasn't happy about the other boys being back. "Oh, Seamus also told us to tell you, Gilbert, and this isn't me paraphrasing, these were his exact words, 'You's better get your tongue out of her mouth or you'll find yourself in hospital'." Antonio said, happily munching on a brownie. I reached for one as well and sat nibbling on it while Gilbert tried to think of a reasonable response. He gave up before long and got a brownie instead. We all sat there until it started getting dark, then the boys decided that it was time they left. I went downstairs with them and waited while they said bye to the others, then I opened the door for them, giving Gilbert a quick kiss as he left. As I turned around after closing the door I found myself face to face with Seamus, who did not look happy. "Care to explain yourself?" He demanded. "What about?" I asked innocently, neatly side stepping around him and heading for the stairs. "Oh, I don't know, maybe you could tell me why you spent half an hour alone with Gilbert in your bedroom." He said, struggling to keep his cool. "Oh that, no I would not care to explain that." I started up the stairs. He followed, keeping a single step between us at all times. "Well you better, because if you two were kissing then I'm going to murder him." He was really angry now, I could tell. I waited until I was in my room before I answered him. "We were kissing, but you're not going to murder him because if you do, I will personally impale your head on a stick and put you on display outside. Understand? Good." And with that, I slammed the door in his face.


	13. Winter

"Ah, why the heck is it so freaking cold out here?" I moaned, curled up next to Gilbert on the floor of the school playground. "Uh maybe because it's winter." Francis said sarcastically. "No shiz Sherlock." I replied quickly (Hey daughterofacountry here, might I just say...SHERLOCK AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Right, got it out of my system now, let us continue) "Hey, you're the one that asked." He joked. "Yeah well, whatever, when are they going to let us in, I'm freezing here." I continued my moaning. "Look, they're opening the doors right now, so we can all go and get warm." Gilbert said quietly, getting up and pulling me up with him. Francis stood up as well and Antonio attempted to, but fell over. I facepalmed. "Toni, what the heck?" I asked, very nicely, obviously. "Ummm...I fell over." He leaped up, brushing the dirt off of himself. "Come on, slow pokes, I want to get inside and get a seat before they're all taken." Francis said, marching off ahead and weaving his way through the crowd. "Hey, Francis, wait up!" I called, and all three of us dashed off after him. Just before we could sit down the bell went for first lesson. "Hey, music." Antonio said cheerfully. "Oh yeah, we're doing that pair work again aren't we?" I half remembered and half questioned. "Yep, we are." Gilbert said, taking my hand. We held hands nearly all the time now, but Gilbert made a point to put his arm tight around either my shoulders or my waist every time Arthur got anywhere near me, he did often do it around the other boys as well, but every time we were in the same room as Arthur he got really protective. I always worried when he did that, I'd asked Arthur about curses and he told me how easy it was to kill someone with them. What if he got so angry at Gilbert that he hurt him? I'd kill him, that's what. We were about two doors away from our music room when Arthur suddenly emerged from a doorway, and gained a very smug look when he saw Gilbert, who instinctively wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me tight to him. I instantly went into panic mode. Why had he looked so smug? What had he done? If he'd done something bad to Gilbert, he was so dead, surely he knew that. I was partially able to convince myself that he wouldn't have done anything, he knew the consequences if he did, but that didn't help me get rid of the feeling that something wasn't quite right, so he probably wouldn't have done anything to Gilbert, but what about Francis, or Antonio? And what if he was planning to strike me for abandoning him? I was getting so worried that I could barely concentrate in music, and, although Francis and Antonio were completely oblivious, Gilbert most certainly was not.


End file.
